The dark didn't answer my grin. It didn't need to. It answered with a shape.
It came low and wrong, closer to the ground than I expected, moving in a way that didn't belong to legs so much as a general suggestion of them, and Death Sense screamed a location half a heartbeat before my eyes caught up. I threw myself sideways, felt something pass through the space where my ribs had been, and hit the ground rolling.
I came up already swinging.
Wren connected with something solid, wet, and utterly unfamiliar, and the impact ran up my arm like I'd hit a wall wrapped in meat. Whatever it was, it didn't scream. It didn't make a sound I could name a species to. It just kept coming, and I kept moving, and for a few seconds the only thing keeping me alive was the fact that Death Sense fired faster than I could think.
Left. I moved left before I knew why, and a limb the width of my torso cratered the ground where I'd been standing.
